


Monday: Memory Loss

by obvioustheory



Series: SEAL Team Week 2021 [1]
Category: SEAL Team (TV)
Genre: Cancer, Memory Loss
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-17 16:07:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28851816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/obvioustheory/pseuds/obvioustheory
Summary: One-shots featuring each character from Bravo Team experiencing memory loss for SEAL Team Week 2021.
Series: SEAL Team Week 2021 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2115675
Comments: 8
Kudos: 49





	1. Brain Tumour

**Author's Note:**

> So I decided I was going to post for SEAL Team week and then I saw the prompts and had way too many ideas. I'm going to go totally overboard! For each prompt I have a short fic for each of the current main characters. Will be posted over the next couple of weeks to spread them out a bit.

When the headaches started, he’d dismissed it, his job is insanely stressful and a headache every now and again is normal. When the blurred vision started, he promised himself he’d book an appointment with the eye doctor, but then work took priority and he never got around to it. When the fainting started, that was harder to ignore. Fainting in the middle of a mission briefing or a trans-atlantic flight worries the people that care about you. Some of those people will demand you see a doctor immediately in their very scary but somehow also very caring manner.

When he finally goes to the doctor it doesn’t take long for him to figure out this isn’t sometime minor. He’d anticipated going home to have a quiet beer and some pizza, but instead his doctor had insisted he go straight into the emergency room for emergent tests. A few hours later, he’s admitted to the oncology ward and told that he has brain cancer.

The first person he calls is Adam but he must be busy so he leaves a message. Next he calls Lisa who picks up on the second ring and no sooner are the words out of his mouth is she demanding to know where he is and what room number is he in.

When Lisa arrives she’s in a dress, a nice dress, and he assumes that he’s interrupted her on a date, although he didn’t think she was seeing anyone. Lisa has a hundred questions straight off the bat and the nurse promises her a doctor will be by to answer all of them soon. 

“Did you call Jason yet?” Lisa asks, she knows he will have informed the Brass already and the last thing she wants is Jason and Bravo finding out from Lindell.

“Thought I’d wait until the morning” He replies, “I tried calling Adam, no answer”. Lisa’s face flashes between sadness and confusion. “He’ll get back to me soon.”

“Eric” Lisa whispers, “Adam died. A few years ago.”

“I spoke to him this morning” Eric replies, he’s not sure what kind of joke she’s trying to play on him but it’s a bad one. He’s already been told he has brain cancer, he doesn’t need anyone messing with his mind right now.

Lisa excuses herself from the room, he’s assuming off to find his nurse or to call Bravo. She doesn’t come back for a while, but when she does his doctor, Jason and Trent are with her. They all look concerned.

“Ms Davis tells me you’re experiencing some memory loss” The doctor states, “You hadn’t mentioned that as one of your symptoms.”

“I don’t have memory loss” Eric retorts, not sure why Lisa would continue this stupid joke, especially by getting his doctor involved.

“Eric, what’s my job?” Lisa asks and Eric rolls his eyes, he has brain cancer, he’s not an idiot.

“You’re a Navy Petty Officer” Eric replies, he notices Jason and Trent exchange a look but he’s not sure what to make of it. 

“Who’s on Bravo?” Trent asks, he looks concerned, like he’s just asked a question he doesn’t think Eric has the right answer to even though he obviously does as he’s there commanding officer.

“Jason, Ray, Sonny, Trent, Nate, Brock” Blackburn replies. Jason and Trent look even more concerned, Lisa looks like she might cry. They’re all looking at his doctor like there’s some kind of crisis going on.

“Ok” The doctor says, “We’re going to add a few more tests, I’ll be back in a few hours.” And then the doctor leaves, closing the door behind him.

“Alright, out with it” Eric demands, “What the hell is going on?”

“Eric, you’re experiencing memory loss” Trent states in his eerily calm medic voice, “Lisa hasn’t been a Petty Officer for a while, and Bravo’s changed a few times since Nate was on the team.”

“Is this some kind of sick joke” Eric asks, confused. He has a sinking feeling in his gut that it might not be.

“Eric, who’s Clay Spencer?” Lisa asks.

“He’s Ash Spencer’s kid” Eric replies, “I haven’t seen him in years, not since he was a kid, but I heard he’s going through Green Team.”

“Eric, Clay’s been Bravo 6 for over 3 years” Jason states, “We drafted him after Nate died.”

“Nate’s dead” Eric asks, “Adam too?” He knows now, this is not a joke, there’s a hole in his memory that he didn’t even know existed until now. He wants to cry, he wants to break something, he wants to put his fist through the wall, he wants to scream. 

Lisa perches herself on the side of the bed and takes his hand, “It’s all going to be ok, we got you.”


	2. Photographic Memories

He knows that its usual to not have any memories before the age of 10. Some shrink could probably show him how to retrieve those memories from wherever they’re currently hidden his brain. But it’s a lot of effort to go to just for memories of his mother being strung out or high as a kite, and his dad being absent or verbally abusive. Plus, Sonny believes, genuinely or not, that shrinks put some kind of voodoo curse on their patients and Clay doesn’t want to deal with whatever craziness Sonny would come up with if he knew Clay was going to see a shrink.

Bravo is sitting by the fire pit in the Perry’s backyard, its late and their all sipping on their third or fourth after-dinner beer. Their one big group chat has splintered off into several small group conversations and Clay is listening to Trent and Full Metal complain about still having to deal with Thirty on their team.

“I don’t know how Blackburn hasn’t strangled him, honestly” Clay inputs, as much as Thirty has pissed off every member of Bravo team, his BS and excuses have to have grated on Blackburn’s nerves more than theirs.

“I mean he spent ten years in the field with your father and didn’t murder him” Trent said, “Pretty solid training.”

“What?” Clay asked, he knew Blackburn was a former SEAL but he’d never asked what team he’d been on.

“You didn’t know?” Trent asks, setting his beer down on the ground beside him and leaning forward in his chair.

“I don’t really remember much before I lived with my grandparents” Clay admitted, hoping Full Metal and Trent wouldn’t make a big deal of it.

“What the fuck bro?” Full Metal states, that gets the attention of most of Bravo who stop their conversation and turn to look at the three of them expectantly, “How do you not remember anything before you were like 12?”

“10” Clay corrects. “Not much to remember before then, I guess”. 

“But you’ve got like pictures and stuff, right?” Lisa asks. Bravo had known Clay had a shitty childhood, but he usually clammed up and refused to answer all questions related to the subject. Lisa’s guessing the afternoon of steady drinking has loosened his tongue and it might be their only opportunity to get their questions answered about how exactly Clay ended up spending half his childhood in Liberia.

“I don’t” Clay replies, taking a long swig from his beer, “I don’t have any photos before I moved Stateside for college.”

The next day Clay is wandering the halls of DEVGRU trying to kill time between a long run with Brock and a routine threat assessment briefing when Blackburn calls him into his office. 

“Alyssa pulled these out for you” Blackburn says referring to his wife who Clay’s only met a few times at various team events. He slides a box across the desk to Clay who opens it. He takes out the first picture, he recognises his mum holding a baby who he assumes is probably him, there’s a few other women in the picture but Clay doesn’t recognise any of them. He shuffles to the next one and sees a picture of him and his dad, posed for the camera, when he was about two or three. Next, he flips to a picture of him and a young Alyssa Blackburn, he’s about four and his right arm looks to be in a cast.

“How did I break my arm?” Clay wonders aloud.

“We were told you fell out of a tree” Blackburn says in a tone that clearly suggests he doesn’t believe what he’s saying in the slightest. Clay raises an eyebrow in response, “You were so scared of heights at four you wouldn’t have climbed on a step ladder let alone climbed a tree.”

“You think my parents…..” Clay trials off, he’d always known they were crappy parents, his mum died of a drug overdose when he was 10 and then his dad shipped him off to Liberia so his career wasn’t impacted by being a single parent. But Clay had never thought they’d been physically abusive.

“Ash was rough with you, he’s got an ego and a temper” Eric stated, “We never knew anything for sure, but there was always concerns.”

Clay continues flipping through the pictures, they all seem to have been taken at various team gatherings throughout the years. He notices visible injuries on his young body in more than one of the photos, he counts at least three separate casts. His parents don’t feature in many of the photos, only a few posed photos which Clay can tell his childhood self was uncomfortable being held by his parents. There’s lots of photos of him with Alyssa Blackburn and Victoria Seaver, and there’s a series of photos of what looks like Eric Blackburn and Adam Seaver teaching Clay how to ride a bike.

“You taught me how to ride a bike?” Clay asks, wondering how in the heck he’d forgotten about this and how Blackburn obviously remembered all of it and still worked with him for three years without saying anything.

“Yeah, didn’t take much” Blackburn laughs, “You feel on your first two tries, then you took off on that thing so fast Adam and I were basically doing wind spirts to keep up with you.”

“You could’ve put the beer down” Clay laughs showing Eric a photo where Eric and Adam are both holding beers while chasing after Clay. Eric laughs and shrugs in response.

“We raised you better than that Spencer.”


End file.
